Kyoto University volcanologist Kazuhiro Ishihara said: ‘I don’t think there will be any serious impact from the explosion. But of course we must keep monitoring the volcanic activity.’

The Japanese archipelago is in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of mountains and fault lines in the Pacific Basin which has more than 100 volcanoes. The 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake in central Japan killed 57 people.